The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
The New York Times On Heritage Foundation 2.0
With a flashback to my resignation.
This time last year, I felt a sense of great accomplishment. The Third Edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution had been sent to the printers, with an expected delivery date of September 17. Even though the book was complete, my work was far from over. During the summer of 2025, I was planning the launch event for Constitution Day at Heritage, as well as a massive book signing at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention. Moreover, I was producing the audio version of the book, which was to be released in a serial podcast format. Most of our authors had already come into the Heritage Studios to record their essays. Things were looking up by the day. My work at Heritage had become one of my most fulfilling and rewarding professional experiences. Then it all came crashing down.
What a difference a year makes. On December 21, 2025, I published my resignation letter from Heritage. Several of my colleagues were fired from Heritage. Others resigned noisily, but most resigned quietly. Now, the dust appears to have settled. With few exceptions, people who no longer fit at the new Heritage are no longer there. Kevin Roberts survived the scandal and is likely to endure for some time. Indeed, he has recruited new supportive Board members and appointed subordinates who support his vision. The new hires are all mission aligned. The old Heritage ceased to exist long before Tucker Carlson's infamous podcast, but now "Heritage 2.0", as it is called, is firmly established.
The New York Times Magazine has a deeply reported story, titled What the Crackup of the Heritage Foundation Says About the Post-Trump Right. The article is consistent with what I've heard over the past year, and sheds light on some items that had been less-than-clear.
Here is an excerpt about the wave of departures (both voluntary and involuntary) from Heritage:
Many employees and experts at Heritage appeared to disagree with the premise that such people belonged in their coalition, and especially that anyone was trying to set them right. Longtime Heritage employees told me that the people they usually collaborated with in congressional offices, circuit courts, foreign embassies and other institutions no longer wanted to be publicly associated with Heritage and what they perceived as its fidelity to Carlson. In a resignation letter later made public, Josh Blackman, a legal scholar who had for years been working on a new edition of "The Heritage Guide to the Constitution," said the volume's contributors pulled out of an event promoting the book and refused to sign copies. Judges who had spoken at the foundation, Blackman wrote, said "they would no longer affiliate with Heritage."
In the wake of Roberts's video, dozens of staff members departed. Eighteen of them ended up at former Vice President Mike Pence's new think tank, Advancing American Freedom, which Pence founded shortly after leaving office in 2021, as a home for more traditional conservatives. (It has attracted money and experts, if perhaps not yet a proportionate boost in cachet.)
Roberts seemed unfazed by the departures. "There are a handful, not many remaining, now former colleagues who wanted to direct Heritage's mission, its implementation of that mission, in sort of a 1980s-style way," he told me. "So, I guess it's appropriate they went to Pence's think tank." Certain scholars, particularly in the legal and economics departments, had been "used to getting their own way," he went on. "And it's good that they're gone."
I think my colleagues who left Heritage would agree that it is good they are gone.
Update: John Malcolm, formerly of Heritage and now of Advancing American Freedom, posted on X:
For the record, I didn't speak to this reporter, but her article is interesting & largely accurate. In it, Kevin Roberts says (referring to me & my colleagues who left Heritage to join Advancing American Freedom) that he's glad we're gone. I couldn't agree more. Although there are some great people who are still there, we are glad we're gone too.
